The Notts Review • 12 September 2026

Former Dancing on Ice star Mark Hanretty on Nottingham’s National Ice Centre: “There’s no better place to skate than here”

Sitting in the café at Nottingham’s National Ice Centre, Mark Hanretty is in familiar surroundings. The former competitive skater trained at the venue before going on to compete professionally, appear on ITV’s Dancing on Ice and, today, work primarily as an International Skating Union (ISU) commentator and host at some of the biggest events in international skating.“It’s the commentary season, but there was no event this week, so I’m filling the gap with some coaching,” he explains, reflecting o...

DIY • 2 June 2026

KuleeAngee: “Being in a rave is one of the top five feelings in life”

Life for KuleeAngee all began when, after the pandemic, members Keshav - or Kesh - Kanabar and Duncan Grant found themselves queuing outside the infamous London LGBTQ+ club, Dalston Superstore. “We were with other people but they packed it in, so we went ‘out out’,” Duncan reflects. “I said to Kesh: ‘I want to start a band’. He said ‘who with?, and I said ‘with you!’, then we danced the night away.”Hailing from Glasgow and Edinburgh, the pair already knew each other through session work, somethi...

The Line of Best Fit • 7 May 2026

Sofia Cordoba marks her English-language debut with bright acoustic ballad “Symptom of Love”

“Symptom of Love” introduces the first taste of Cordoba's forthcoming EP, and showcases the full breadth of her bilingual songwriting. Raised on a rich blend of American and British rock alongside Colombian and Cuban music, Cordoba’s relationship with music was shaped early by the sounds constantly surrounding her. “I remember music being everywhere, I’m lucky my parents have good taste in music,” she says. Formative influences include U2, Guns N' Roses and Shakira, alongside artists emerging fr...

The Line of Best Fit • 24 April 2026

Basht. channel generational unease on brooding new single “Perfume”

Through relentless touring and a growing reputation on the live circuit, Basht. have built a devoted fanbase in the lead-up to announcing Poor Advice. Knockout live shows on tour with the likes of DEADLETTER, Everything Everything and Wunderhorse, as well as appearances at festivals including The Great Escape and Truck.
Until last year, the band underwent several line-up changes before settling on Jack Leavey (vocals/guitar), Lughaidh Armstrong-Mayock (lead guitar), Ryan McClelland (drums) and L...

DIY • 2 April 2026

Arlo Parks - Ambiguous Desire

In the time since the release of second album ‘My Soft Machine’ in 2023, Arlo Parks has thrown herself into the nocturnal underbelly of New York City, slipping into spaces far removed from the spotlight where she could exist on her own terms. That club-rooted energy courses through this third full-length album, ‘Ambiguous Desire’, as she draws on influences ranging from The Streets to Burial, LCD Soundsystem and Theo Parrish to become her most confident and assured self yet.Arlo isn’t the first...

Clash Magazine • 4 March 2026

Book Of Churches - Book Of Churches

Felix Mackenzie-Barrow has spent the past few years in constant motion with Divorce, pushing towards their debut ‘Drive to Goldenhammer’ and hauling it across Europe and North America. Book of Churches feels like the necessary counterweight to that ascent. Written in snatched hours in vans and childhood bedrooms, the self-titled debut is not a detour but a deliberate act of reclamation, a quiet insistence on identity away from the collective surge. Opening track ‘Song By A Stranger’ establishes...

DIY • 4 March 2026

waterbaby - Memory Be A Blade

While her 2023 EP ‘Foam’ introduced Stockholm artist waterbaby in melancholic soft focus, this full-length debut moves with darker intent, its eight tracks denser, richer in arrangement and sharper in interrogation. Across ‘Memory Be A Blade’, she circles her memories not to wallow but to examine how they have shaped her, particularly in the aftermath of two relationships that reframed the record as it was being made. That sense of shifting meaning runs through the album’s emotional core, as son...

The Line of Best Fit • 19 February 2026

samxemma’s “SEE SEE WHERE WE GO” confronts toxic love through hyperpop intensity

Shaped more by the internet than any one city, samxemma’s Sam Cooper and Emma Kirsch describe their sound as distinctly online. “We don’t sound like we’re from Manchester,” Cooper admits. “All the music I find is online.” Yet their meeting was offline; at university. “Freshers week at Spoons,” Kirsch recalls – she is originally from San Diego, with Cooper from Northampton.
At the time they first met, they were both already making music but in separate bands. Cooper describes his as “The 1975-es...